ADVERTISEMENT VENICE FILM FESTIVAL DAY 4 SUNDAY, SEPT. 1, 2019 0901 VD MM SQUARE CO_CVR1.indd 1 8/26/19 2:13 PM CGP 2017 & 2018 alumni! AND BEST WISHES FOR CONTINUED SUCCESS Toronto international film festival DISCOVERY 1982 A film by OUALID MOUANESS Toronto international film festival DISCOVERY Toronto international SAN SEBASTIAN film festival International Film Festival DISCOVERY NEW DIRECTORS US $190,000 TO BE OFFERED AS AWARDS TO THE WINNING FILMMAKERS FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT WWW.ELGOUNAFILMFESTIVAL.COM El-Gouna Film Festival @ElGounaFilm El Gouna Film Festival Untitled-2 1 8/29/19 11:56 AM VENICE FILM FESTIVAL DAY 4 SUNDAY, SEPT. 1, 2019 CGP 2017 & 2018 alumni! SOAP DISCOVERY Inside Joke EXCLUSIVE AND BEST WISHES FOR CONTINUED SUCCESS Larrain 3B Prods. Expounds Ramps Up on ‘Ema,’ Projects Male Gaze By ELSA KESLASSY By NICK VIVARELLI 3b prods., the French production outfit behind Chilean auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Ven- Pablo Larrain likes to ice opener “The Truth,” is tread new ground with developing the next films each film, but movies of Atiq Rahimi (“The with women’s names, and Patience Stone”) and female characters at their Karim Dridi (“Chouf”). center, do seem to have Rahimi, whose latest a special appeal for him. film “Notre-dame du Nil” Toronto international film festival After “Jackie,” he’s back in will be world premier- Venice with “Ema,” a por- ing at Toronto, is develop- DISCOVERY trait of an incendiary lady ing with Jean Brehat at 3B contending with tragedy in Prods. and Ron Senkowski 1982 a totally different way than “Joker” stars Zazie Beetz and Joaquin Phoenix share a moment of laughter with the film’s director Todd (“The Prophet”) the adap- A film by OUALID MOUANESS her husband, who is played Phillips at the photocall for the film, which has the Lido audiences buzzing. tation of “Les echelles du by Gael Garcia Bernal. levan” (“Port of Calls”), a Larrain spoke to Variety novel by French-Lebanese Toronto international BOFFO STRATEGY film festival about how young Chilean writer Amin Maalouf. actress Mariana Di Girol- “I’ve always loved Amin DISCOVERY → LARRAIN, P.6 → 3B, P.7 EXCLUSIVE Italy’s Summer B.O. REVIEW Atlas V Phoenix Gives Toronto international SAN SEBASTIAN film festival International Film Festival DISCOVERY NEW DIRECTORS Bows Sales, Jumps With U.S. Push ‘Joker’ Power Distrib Ops By NICK VIVARELLI caused a glut of product throughout the rest of the year and was considered a major Over Auds By ELSA KESLASSY italian and U.S. film industry execu- impediment to the local market’s growth. By OWEN GLEIBERMAN tives announced Saturday at the Venice Luigi Lonigro, who is head of Italy’s dis- atlas v, the leading Film Festival that this summer’s box office tributors, called the figures “very encourag- Audiences, as we French VR production figures in Italy are up by 40% over the past ing,” noting that they mark Italy’s best sum- know, can’t get enough company behind the Ven- two years as local distributors depart from mer result of the past eight seasons. of a great bad guy — the US $190,000 ice-competing “Battle- past practice and release more movies Last year, the country suffered its worst kind we love to hate. The TO BE OFFERED AS AWARDS TO THE WINNING FILMMAKERS Scar,” “Gloomy Eyes” and between May and August. results in a decade in terms of movie tick- worse he acts, the more “Ex Anima Experience,” is This year’s roughly 44% box office rise et sales. That prompted the Italian indus- we stare. Of course, the getting ready to diversify during that period to €138 million ($151 try and Hollywood to mount a concerted fact that we relish a vil- with the launch of inter- million) was prompted by the day-and- campaign, known as Moviement, to sched- lain doesn’t mean that national sales and distri- date summer release of a dozen Hollywood ule more summer releases. Ten Hollywood we’re on his side; getting bution activities. blockbusters, including “Toy Story 4” and titles were slotted from May to August. off on the catchy, scary Boasting one of the “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” Not all of the titles performed so well. spectacle of bad behavior largest libraries of premi- It comes after Italy suffered a long “Toy Story 4” under-performed, pulling in isn’t the same as identify- um VR, 360 and immer- dearth of summer releases during the only €6 million ($6.6 million), and “The ing with it. But in “Joker,” sive content in Europe, months when Italians traditionally hit the Secret Life of Pets 2” grossed a mere €4 mil- Todd Phillips’ hypnotically CAMILLA MORANDI/IPA/SHUTTERSTOCK CAMILLA → ATLAS V, P.6 beach en masse. The summer film drought → BOX OFFICE, P.7 → ‘JOKER,’ P.6 FOR MORE DETAILED INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT WWW.ELGOUNAFILMFESTIVAL.COM El-Gouna Film Festival @ElGounaFilm El Gouna Film Festival Untitled-2 1 8/29/19 11:56 AM VENICE FILM FESTIVAL | NEWS EXCLUSIVE Taskovski Nabs Rights to ‘Babenco’ Doc By JOHN HOPEWELL london-based sales and production company Taskovski Films has acquired world sales rights to Barbara Paz’s debut documentary, “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die,” which bows in Venice Classics on Sept. 2. Paz, an actress, was mar- ried to Héctor Babenco, a com- manding future on the Brazil- ian film scene who directed and wrote films such as “The Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Ironweed,” “Carandiru,” “My Adam Young, Estela Valdivieso Chen, Heller German, Antoine Cayrol, Kay Huang, Miwa Komatsu, Shiao-Ching Ting, Szu-Ming Hindu Friend” and “Pixote.” Liu, Saiau-Yue Tsau, Chun-Yao Yao, Wei-Liang Chiang and Midi Z at the Taiwan immersive lineup party in Venice. Produced by HB Filmes, Babenco’s production label, PLATFORM DIVING “Babenco” is co-produced by Fabiano Gullane, who pro- duced Babenco’s “Carandiru” and other titles such as Fer- nando Coimbra’s “A Wolf at the HTC, C Vive Launch VR Grant Door.” Lusco Fusco, Ava Filmes, Globo Filmes, GloboNews and By ELSA KESLASSY “This association will acceler- already formed an active content Canal Brasil also produce. ate the VR industry development ecosystem,” said Hsiao-Ching. “‘Babenco: Tell Me When c vive, the vr unit of Tai- through international co-invest- Liu Szu-ming, the president of I Die’ is a beautiful dance of wan’s tech giant HTC, which has ment,” said Hsiao-Ching Ting, the HTC Vive Originals, said her com- death and life. We are very a record five original VR works chairperson of TAICCA, which is pany will also launch a content happy to have had the oppor- competing at Venice, is joining also a backer of Taiwan’s national management and blockchain tunity to discover Barbara Paz, forces with the one-year-old Tai- development fund. authentication system to “help a new talented and strong wan Creative Content Agency “While those in the content content creator, cultural creative female director and to start (TAICCA) to launch a grant for development industry contin- workers, and offline channels to the partnership with Brazil- international VR co-productions. ue to face challenges in technolo- integrate their resources.” ian production companies The initiative was announced gy, funding and business models, HTC Vive’s Venice pics are HBFilmes and the very well during the Taiwan immersive in Taiwan, intermediary orga- “Only the Mountain Remains,” known and acclaimed Gul- lineup party hosted by both HTC nizations such as TAICCA and “O,” “Inori,” “The Making Of” and lane,” Irena Taskovski said. Vive and TAICCA on the Lido. businesses in the industry have “Gloomy Eyes.” VENICE HORIZONS at this time, when black people were being liberated.” ‘Moffie’ Explores Dark Chapter in South Africa That trauma has a complicat- ed legacy in South Africa, where By CHRISTOPHER VOURLIAS slur for “gay” — is used to berate the official competition at Venice. questions of race-based econom- anyone who doesn’t live up to a Based on the novel by André-Carl ic inequality remain relevant since The year is 1981, and South perceived masculine ideal, Nich- van der Merwe, “Moffie” examines the end of apartheid. Hermanus Africa’s apartheid government is olas has to come to terms with a little-known chapter in South has wondered if a story about embroiled in a vicious war along his desires while also surviving a African history. white pain deserves to be told. But VARIETY.COM the southern Angolan border. Like war being fought on behalf of a “This army and this conflict the director noted that “Moffie” is all white boys over the age of 16, government whose racist policies disappeared just around the time especially relevant in the context Nicholas Van der Swart is con- had already made it a pariah state that [Nelson] Mandela came out of the #MeToo movement. scripted for two years of manda- around the world. of jail, and the road to democra- “If we want to talk about white tory military service. For Nicholas “Moffie” is the fourth feature by cy was being paved,” said Herma- men today, or men in general, in (Kai Luke Brummer), that service Oliver Hermanus, the director of nus. Though compulsory military the climate that we live in, may- grows increasingly fraught when Cannes Un Certain Regard play- service left a profound psychologi- be it is important to look at how SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 SEPTEMBER he finds himself attracted to a fel- er “Skoonheid” (Beauty) and “The cal mark on a generation of white these men … have been made for low conscript. In a world where Endless River,” which was the first South African men, “there was no the last century in South Africa,” 2 the word “moffie” — an Afrikaans South African film selected for space for the trauma of white men said Hermanus.